Today, Explained - Xi Jinping cracks down on everything

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping has kicked off a "rectification" campaign that’s affecting every sector of Chinese society and business. Lily Kuo, the Washington Post's China bureau chief, explains. Today’s show was produced by Hady Mawajdeh and Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. An American, an Englishman, and an Australian walk onto a submarine. I forget how the joke goes, but France is pissed. Last week, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia announced a new trilateral partnership. AUKUS. It sounds strange, there's all these acronyms, but it's a good one.

The agreement calls for Australia to buy a nuclear submarine fleet. Australia then scrapped an existing 2016 deal to buy diesel-powered subs from France. This unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision looks a lot like what Mr. Trump used to do. Does your government feel betrayed by the United States? Yes, we have this feeling. It's disappointing. It's disappointing. We can try and explain bruised egos and big defense deals on the show today,

but instead, we figured we'd try and get to the heart of the matter. And that's China. The reason President Biden and Boris Johnson are making submarine deals with Australia is to counter China. So it felt like a good time to ask, what's up in China? And it turns out, a lot. Xi Jinping is overseeing this sprawling rectification campaign that is targeting ride-hailing services, tech companies, insurance companies, education, and even the amount of time that kids can play video games. And what we're seeing in this great rectification is really the redrawing of the boundaries of business and society in China today.

Lily Kuo is the China Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, based in Taipei. We asked her what exactly she meant by rectification campaign. So, I mean, some people have called this a kind of second cultural revolution. So it's a correction of all the ills of society. So I think rectification has a connotation of moral principles to it. So what are the correct values that should be promoted in Chinese society? What are the correct values that businesses should be operating by? So the rectification that we're seeing is an effort to kind of draw those principles and have the party determine,

you know, what those values are. Give us an idea, Lily, of what exactly is being changed here. What's going on? So we can think of this in sort of three categories. The first is that we have a reigning in of the private sector, mainly the tech sector in China. Then you have new restrictions and controls over the culture sector. So this is entertainment, celebrities. And then lastly, you also have changes in the education system and the push of certain values in society directed at young people. OK, well, let's start with education. What's going on there? Many parents invested in tutors to help their children boost their results in hyper-competitive exams known as Gaokao that they need to pass to get into universities. So the education system in China is incredibly competitive and incredibly intense. And all parents put their kids into hours and hours of these extra classes. The authorities have banned for-profit private tutoring and overnight basically ev authorities is that this for-profit industry has upset the ideals of education. And by banning this, then they are helping level the playing field for parents and families who can't really afford these classes.

And also the idea is that you take some of the pressure off of the students and the kids. So it's an incredibly competitive education system. And by banning part of that system, you're going to make it more fair for people. Is that right? I've asked people, you know, parents that I know in China, what they think of this. And people say, you know, it's the right spirit.

And it makes sense. And, you know, this industry really is out of control. And the pressure is too much. But one teacher that we talked to, she was describing how at her school, all these teachers are out of work. And, you know, just it seems to be a counterproductive policy because there's still as much competition to get into the best universities in China. And these students still need this tutoring, and teachers also need the extra money from tutoring. And she made this point that, you know, if the point is really education equality, then why didn't the government make universities or all school fees free?

So that sounds like a pretty big cultural shift in terms of education, but it sounds like there's a lot more cultural shifts afoot here. Yes. So another crackdown that we're seeing is on what authorities have called the chaotic celebrity culture in China. Chaotic celebrity culture. So you have certain celebrities that have basically been wiped from the Internet. You have new rules about what content can be promoted online and what kind of content should be in movies and TV shows. And the other big focus of this campaign is these things called fan clubs. So China has these really extreme fan clubs where especially young people are in these groups where they support a certain celebrity and they donate money to them. They'll fight members of other fan clubs for them.

Wait, the fan clubs are fighting? Yeah, the fan clubs fight. They're really intense. One example that I think is seen as possibly a tipping point for this fan club culture is that this Canadian Chinese pop star named Chris Wu. In early August, police in Beijing detained Chris Wu, a dual Chinese-Canadian citizen on suspicion of rape. And his fans went crazy. And they supposedly were hatching these plans to break him out of prison. And so this was seen as, you know, going too far because they were going to go against the government and try to get him out of prison. But they didn't, right?

Why do Xi Jinping and the Chinese government feel like they need to crack down on fandom? It seems like a low priority. Some people say that because China is a place where you can't discuss politics, there's not a lot of sensitive issues that you can really debate openly. And celebrities is one of those things that you can really go at it with people and get in these big fights with people. And so that this is sort of an outlet for people. So one interesting question is, you know, what happens if you shut that off for people? But the reason why this is being targeted, I think one has to do with the values, this idea that

celebrities are the ones in control of the value system in China, and the party wants to have that control. So they want to be able to determine what is okay in popular culture. And this isn't just about fandom. It's also about how long kids can play video games online. So now there are limits on the time that kids can play. The crackdown also extends to what images kids should be seeing in movies and online and TV. And one of those images that the government has deemed unacceptable is something called niang pao. Which in your article, like you say, roughly translates to like sissy men. Is that right? Yes.

So this is, I mean, so this is a derogatory term in China also. And it refers to feminine men or sissy men is the most common translation. What are they actually trying to crack down on here? What they're trying to crack down on is this trend in Chinese pop culture where you have young men who are kind of known for their androgynous looks. They might wear jewelry or makeup and, you know, they're just very attractive and very pretty. What's wrong with that? That sounds nice. Pretty men? What's not to like? Yeah, I think they're trying to promote a very narrow idea of what it means to be a man

in China. And they have ideas of masculinity that are culturally conservative and they want to present a certain picture of China as strong and they think that to present a man out of you. That feels like it'd be really hard to enforce. Yeah, so the way that they are enforcing that is by telling broadcasters and content providers not to promote these kinds of images and not to promote content that includes men like this. One thing that's certainly going to be a lot easier for the Chinese government to control is the economy. How is Xi Jinping tweaking the Chinese economy? So the main thing that's happening in the economy is that over the last 12 months,

the private sector, the tech sector has really been reined in. And this is under the name of cracking down on what the government has called the disorderly expansion of capital. And it means weakening some of the country's biggest tycoons. In recent months, Beijing has targeted some of China's most successful companies, imposing harsh regulations and fines on ride-hailing company Didi and tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. And so with these tech companies, the idea isn't to destroy them or to, you know, to wipe them out or for them to not play a big role in the economy,

but rather to kind of harness them and have them serve the state and, you know, serve the party's agenda. It's interesting to hear that thinking about the United States, where there's all this talk about reigning in big tech. Is this like a version of that in China? Yeah, I think it is a version of that because one of the questions is, what are they doing with all this data that they amass and how are they using that? The other thing is that one of the reasons that tech companies have been so successful in China is that there's sort of been this gray zone in regulation. And so the tech companies could kind of advance first and then regulation catches up with that.

So some of this is an effort to kind of bridge that gap and, you know, make it so that the regulators are behind. Is there like a broader strategy with this rectification campaign, these changes to education and Chinese culture and the economy? All of this is happening under this big banner of common prosperity. It's the new buzz phrase in Beijing. Many of the policy changes rolled out by the Communist Party of late could be lumped in under the common prosperity theme. Which is a slogan that Xi has used to express his commitment to dealing with income inequality and the lack of social mobility in China.

So on the one hand, you could see this as a kind of populist move by Xi to rally support for him being in power for a third term and, you know, staying in power indefinitely. And how do the Chinese people feel about this? All of these measures, they are a way for the party state to assert control over the economy, the private sector, and society. It's also important to remember that this issue of income inequality and social mobility is a real problem in China. And because of that, people have responded actually pretty positively to a lot of these measures because they see it as contributing to income redistribution or, you know, making things more equal. It sounds like this might be about like the rural-urban divide in China. Yeah, this rural-urban divide. There's also the social mobility question. I mean,

it has, it manifests in lots of ways. So you have couples that don't want to have kids, even though the government keeps trying to encourage families to have more kids and they keep changing. You know, they've recently changed the family planning policy so that you can have three kids instead of two. But people don't want to have kids because it's too expensive in cities. Or you have young people who are burning out and they're sort of checking out of the rat race and talking about this other slogan that's called lying flat. So, you know, obviously the government doesn't want that. They don't want people to check out from society

and not be productive members of the economy. One of the criticisms that has been made about these huge number of measures and crackdowns is that they're actually surface level solutions at a very real problem. So income inequality is a real problem. But is banning for-profit education really going to fix inequality in the education system? So I think overall what we're seeing is the result of the consolidation of Xi's power over his first two terms. So he launched this massive anti-corruption campaign that helped him, you know, eviscerate any real opposition. He shut down any remaining space for public dissent or rejection of human rights.

And he also put himself at the core of, you know, Communist Party ideology. Quick break, then we'll talk about Xi's foreign policy strategy and the submarines. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Thank you. team's unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You can go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained, R-A-M-P.com slash explained. Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC, terms and conditions apply. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM.

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Or someone close to you Please contact Connex Ontario At 1-866-531-2600 To speak to an advisor Free of charge BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement With iGaming Ontario. Okay, Lily, with Xi Jinping tightening his hold on power in China and setting himself up for a third and maybe, who knows, fourth, fifth, sixth term, I'd love to talk a little bit more about where

China stands in the world right now. It's got friends and frenemies. Let's start with China's friends. So the Belt and Road Initiative is Xi Jinping's landmark foreign policy. So this is supposed to be China's contribution to the world and it's kind of real mark in the international community. Chinese companies are building roads, pipelines and railroads around the world. But the initiative is also building China's influence. It's basically about China providing cheap infrastructure and cheap financing.

Here on the outskirts of Bandung, the commuter train is old and slow. They're power plants. They are, they're media companies. There's financing. But now, cutting through the hills that lead to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, there's a tunnel for a high-speed train.

And the engineers and managers who lead this $6 billion project are Chinese. And any other projects that it can offer to potential friends in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. So basically everywhere. It feels like China's been promoting this policy for almost a decade now. I mean, how successful has it been in expanding the country's influence around the world? Well, in some ways you could say that it has not been that successful because China has still been isolated on the international stage by the U.S. and its allies.

On the other hand, you could say it has been pretty successful because anytime something comes up at the U.N., China is able to get a long list of countries that support its statements or measures. 64 countries have issued a joint statement at a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting to express support for China's policies in Xinjiang. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China's policies in Xinjiang are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about combating violent terrorism and separatism. You mentioned the United States, and it feels like the United States for years now has been trying to combat China's ever-expanding influence around the world. Where do U.S.-China relations stand right now? So U.S.-China relations right now are pretty bad. Biden has continued a lot of Trump's policies. And I think there was this question in China of what would the Biden presidency be like and how much would he continue Trump's, what was viewed in China as a very anti-China policy. And Biden, his approach is to rely more on allies and countering China's

influence. But fundamentally, at least to the Chinese, it seems to be the same. China has an overall goal, and I don't criticize them for the goal, but they have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world. That's not going to happen on my watch. It seems to still be treating China as a threat. And of course, the biggest news on this front as of late is that President Biden's going to supply some submarines to Australia, much to the chagrin of France. What's going on there? Right. So the U.S. and the U.K. and Australia have started this new defense alliance where they will share nuclear submarine technology.

China is also very upset about it. China's foreign ministry said the three countries were, quote, severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts. What's also interesting is that China's response has been to pressure different allies of the U.S., but in some ways, they don't really have a lot that they can do now because relations with the U.S. are already at a low. Relations with Australia are very bad. They've been locked in a trade war for more than a year. In the U.K., they've got this trade deal that is needed. But if the U.S. and the U.K. strike this trade deal that is needed. But if the US and

the UK strike a trade deal, which I think this pact kind of paves the way for that, then that leverage is gone too. So some people say that actually the submarine deal is, you know, it's a reaction to China being more aggressive and that China's back into a corner. We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve. Because the future of each of our nations, and indeed the world, depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead. It's just so interesting to think about this sort of like escalation militaristically and in terms of economic competition with China because the two economies are really essentially tied to each other, right? And this includes everything the former president was trying to do with China on trade. Yeah, I think that is correct.

You know, Biden keeps saying, he keeps using this term strategic competition, that China is a competitor. The language is different in terms of framing China as a competitor, and that strategic competition will always be there. And on the Chinese side, I think there's also some acknowledgement that that competition is always going to be there. Internationally, you've got China at odds with the U.S. and all these proxy nations taking sides. At home, you've got this raft of cultural changes. How is this going to animate Xi Jinping's

third term? So another idea behind these drastic changes that he's making is for China to achieve self-reliance. And that likely comes from, you know, looking at the international landscape, looking at the deterioration in China-U.S. relations and the knowledge that, you know, looking at the international landscape, looking at the deterioration in China-U.S. relations and the knowledge that, you know, those ties probably aren't going to get better soon. So another big part of the change in the economy is this idea of China relying more on the domestic economy. So I think a lot of the changes that we're seeing now

are actually, you know, in response to what's happening with China and the U.S. and what's happening kind of in the international community and attitudes toward China. Lily Kuo reports on China for The Washington Post. Our episode today was produced by Hadi Mawagdi and Miles Bryan. I'm Sean Ramos-Firman. This is the 900th episode of Today Explained. Please give us 900 stars wherever you listen. Thank you.